1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for making focused and unfocused grids and collimators that are stationary or movable to avoid grid shadows on an imager and which are adaptable for use in a wide range of electromagnetic radiation applications, such as x-ray and gamma-ray (γ-ray) imaging devices and the like. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for making focused and unfocused grids and collimators, such as air core grids and collimators, that can be constructed with a very high aspect ratio, defined as the ratio between the height of each absorbing grid or collimator wall and the thickness of the absorbing grid or collimator wall, and that are capable of permitting large primary radiation transmission there through.
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for making large area grids and collimators from a single piece or assembled from two or more pieces, For example, the grid and collimator can be assembled from two or more pieces in one layer, and there can be a plurality of layers, each of which includes thin metal walls defining the openings, and which can be stacked on top of each other to increase the overall thickness of the grid or collimator
2. Description of the Related Art
Grids and collimators are used to let through the desirable electromagnetic radiation while eliminate the undesirable ones by absorption. Radiation can penetrate through thicker material as the radiation wavelength decreases or energy increases. The radiation decay length in the material decreases as the atomic number and the density of the materials increase, and according to other properties of the grid or collimator material. Grid and collimator walls, called the septa and/or lamellae, are usually made of metal because of their atomic number and density. Grids and collimators are used extensively in medical x-ray diagnostics, nuclear medicine, non-destructive testing, airport security, a variety of scientific and research applications, industrial instruments, x-ray astronomy and other devices to control, shape or otherwise manipulate beams of radiation. For the description below, the application related to medical diagnostics will be outlined, first for grids for x-ray and then collimators for γ-ray imaging.
X-Ray Imaging:
Conventional medical x-ray imaging systems consist of a point x-ray source and an image recording device (the imager). As x-rays pass through the object on the way to the imager, its intensity is reduced as the result of the internal structure of the object. Thus, x-rays are used in medical applications to differentiate healthy tissue, diseased tissue, bone, and organs from each other.
As x-rays interact with tissue, the x-rays become attenuated as well as scattered by the tissue. X-rays propagating in a direct line from the x-ray source to the imager are desired. Contrast and the signal-to-noise ratio of image details are reduced by scatter. Anti-scatter grids are applied to most diagnostic x-ray imaging modality. For the description below, mammography is used as an example.
Without intervention, both scattered and primary radiations from the subject are recorded in a radiographic image. For mammography, the typical scatter-to-primary ratios (S/P) at the imager range from 0.3 to 1.0. The presence of scatter can cause up to a 50% reduction in contrast, and up to a 55% reduction (for constant total light output from the screen) in signal-to-noise ratio as described in an article by R. Fahrig, J. Mainprize, N. Robert, A. Rogers and M. J. Yaffe entitled, “Performance of Glass Fiber Antiscatter Devices at Mammographic Energies”, Med. Phys. 21, 1277 (1994), the entire contents of both being incorporated herein by reference.
The most common anti-scatter grids, called “one-dimensional” grid, or linear grid meaning that the projection of the lamellae walls on the imager are lines, are made by strips of lead lamella, sandwiched between more x-ray transparent spacer materials such as aluminum, carbon fiber or wood (see, e.g., the Fahrig et al article). This type of grid reduces scattered radiation by reducing scatter in one direction, the axis parallel to the strips. The typical grid ratio (height of grid wall divided by interspace length of the hole) is 4 to 5. The disadvantages associated with this type of one-dimensional grid are that it only reduces scattered x-rays parallel to the strips and that it requires an increase in x-ray dose because of absorption and scatter from the spacer materials.
For scatter reduction applications, the grid walls preferably should be “two-dimensional,” meaning that the projection of the lamellae walls on the imager are not lines but two-dimensional patterns such as squares, rectangles, triangles or hexagonals, to eliminate scatter from all directions. For medical applications, the x-ray source is a point source close to the imager. In order to maximize the transmission of the primary radiation, all the grid openings have to point to the x-ray source. This kind of lamella geometry is called “focused.” Methods for fabricating and assembling focused and unfocused two-dimensional grids are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,850, entitled “A Method and Apparatus for Making Large Area Two-dimensional Grids”, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
When an anti-scatter grid is stationary during the acquisition of the image, the anti-scatter grid will cast a shadow on the imager. It is undesirable, since it can obstruct the image and make interpretation more difficult.
The typical solution to eliminate the shadow of the grid is to move the grid during the period of exposure. The ideal anti-scatter grid with motion will produce uniform exposure on the imager, in the absence of an object being imaged.
One-dimensional grids can be moved in a steady manner in one direction or in an oscillatory manner in the plane of the grid in the direction perpendicular to the parallel strips of highly absorbing lamellae. For two-dimensional grids, the motion can either be in one direction or oscillatory in the plane of the grid, but the grid shape needs to be chosen based on specific criteria.
The following discussion pertains to a two-dimensional grid with regular square or rectangular patterns in the x-y plane, with the grid walls lined up in the x-direction and y-direction. If the grid is moving at a uniform speed in the x-direction, the film will show unexposed stripes along the x-direction, which repeat periodically in the y-direction. The width of the unexposed stripes is the same or essentially the same as the thickness of the grid walls. This grid pattern and associated motion are unacceptable.
If the grid is moving at a uniform speed in the plane of the grid, but at a 45 degree angle from the x-axis, the image on the film or imager is significantly improved. However, strips of slightly overexposed images parallel to the direction of the motion at the intersection of the grid walls will still be present. As the grid moves in the x-direction at a uniform speed, the grid walls block the x-rays everywhere, except at the wall intersection, for the fraction of the time2d/D,where d is the thickness of the grid walls and D is the periodicity of the grid walls. At the wall intersection, the grid walls blocks the x-rays for the fraction of the time2d/D≦t≦d/D,depending on the location. Thus, stripes of slightly overexposed x-ray film are produced.
Methods for attempting to eliminate the overexposed strips discussed above are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,606,589, 5,729,585 and 5,814,235 to Pellegrino et al., the entire contents of each patent being incorporated herein by reference. These methods attempt to eliminate the overexposed strips by rotating the grid by an angle A, where A=atan (n/m), and m and n are integers. However, these methods are unacceptable or not ideal for many applications.
Not all x-ray imaging applications require focused grids. For example, the desirable x-rays for x-ray astronomy are from sources far away and they approach the detector as parallel rays. Anti-scatter grids are required to eliminate x-rays from different sources at different location in the sky. Thus, the walls of the grid should be parallel so that only x-ray from a very narrow angle can be detected. A grid with parallel walls is known as an unfocused grid. Also, there are variations of focused and unfocused grids, such as a) grids focused in one direction, but unfocused in the other direction; b) grids that are piecewise focused, and variations of these characteristic.
Accordingly, the need exists for a method and apparatus to eliminate the overexposed strips associated with two-dimensional focused or unfocused grid intersections.
γ-Ray Imaging
Nuclear medicine utilizes radiotracers to diagnose disease in terms of physiology and biochemistry, rather than primarily in terms of anatomy, emphasizing function and chemistry rather than structure. Radiotracer studies usually measure three types of physiological activities:                regional blood flow and other aspects of transport of matter through the body,        bioenergetics, the provision of energy to body cells,        cancer,        effect of drugs, and        intracellular and intercellular communication, the process by which molecular reactions are regulated.The typical γ-ray emissions are in the 80-500 keV energy range. These γ-rays can originate inside the body and emerge at the surface to be recorded by external radiation detectors. Nuclear imaging is able to examine the interactions for picomolar and lower quantities of molecules involved in biochemical interactions with macromolecular structures, such as recognition sites, enzymes, and substrates within different parts of the living body.        
Gamma cameras (γ-cameras) are used with collimators to capture the γ-rays emitted by the radionuclides. Unlike x-ray applications, γ-rays are emitted in all directions by the radioactive atoms, and they are distributed throughout large are of the body. Collimators are needed between the patient and the γ-camera to filter the γ-rays emitted from desirable locations, by selectively absorbing all but a few of the incident radiation. Gamma-rays that pass through the collimator have radiation propagation directions restricted to a small solid angle. In the absence of scattering within the patient, the photons propagate in a straight line from the point of emission to the point of detection in the γ-camera. Consequently, the collimator imposes a strong correlation between the position in the image and the point of origin of the photon within the patient. Because the collimator restricts the direction of the γ-ray propagation to a very small solid angle, the vast majority of the photons are absorbed by the collimator. This means that even minor improvements in collimator performance can significantly affect the number of detected events and reduce the statistical noise in the images.
Collimators are typically made of lead. The conventional fabrication methods are pressing of thin lead foils and casting. Foil collimators can be made from foil as thin as 100 μm, but they are more susceptible to defects in foil misalignment, resulting in reduced resolution and uniformity of the image. Micro-cast collimators have more uniform septa thickness and good septa alignment, and are structurally stronger than foil collimators. However, micro-casting manufactures, such as Nuclear Fields, cannot make septa thinner than 150 μm. For small animal imaging, the main competitive technology is Tecomet's photochemically etched, stacked tungsten. This technology, however, is (a) limited in the septa thickness, (b) unable to fabricate focused cone beam collimators with smooth walls, and unable to fabricate collimators requiring large slant septa.
Two-dimensional (2D) planar scintigraphy and three-dimensional (3D) single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging systems are used for visualization of in vivo biochemical processes, localization of disease, classification of disease, etc. SPECT provides information on three-dimensional in vivo distribution of radiotracers within the body, calculated from a set of 2D projectional images acquired from a number of γ-cameras surrounding the patient.